Keys

Gaz loves keys. Specifically, she loves my keys. She has long known that keys open doors, but previously she would bang the keys on whatever part of door was handy.

Now we have two new tricks. First, she has figured out where keys need to go in order to open doors. She hasn't figured out that they need to go in point first or that doors need particular keys, but she's well on her way to figuring out how to escape.

The other thing she's figured out is how to put my keys in the diaper champ. Fortunately I heard them go down the one time she's run off with my keys long enough to do this, and they were quickly rescued. Now all who set their keys out around here must beware of this potential key fate.

More Words

It's freaky how fast the vocabulary is growing. Latest entries are: shoes and home. Or ham; we're not too sure which, baby pronunciation being a little "mushy" if you will.

She's been a lot of fun this weekend, micronaps aside. Mark and I just spent the last hour or so grinning at each other while Gaz ran around being cute.

Life is pretty good.

Plea for help

Here's the deal: I want to enter Mothra into a Halloween costume sewing contest. My problem? I'm really not sure what picture to send. If you have a moment and are so inclined, have a look at the photos I've got and tell me which one would inspire you to pick me if you were judging a sewing contest (not a cute baby contest, mind you). Alternately, if you have any pictures that you have taken of Miss Mothra that you feel are superior, please send them to me.

Deadline coming up soon, so if you can help I would be much obliged.

(And so this post isn't totally non-Gaz, her current favorite words--spoken at full volume--are Hi! Wow! Caca! and NO!)

New Old Game

Back in the days when sitting was a rather novel occupation, Gaz and I would play the up-and-down game, wherein I held onto her hands as she lay on the couch and pull her up to a sitting position while saying "UP!" and then laid her back down while saing "DOWN!" It was loads of fun.

We've been playing that game again lately. It's one way of saying thanks for holding still while I change a diaper. It's even better, though, as a vocabularly builder. Just moments ago she was playing on the couch, getting on all fours and saying "UP!" and then collapsing her limbs to flop onto the cushions and saying "DOWN!", which was then followed by running a few laps around the recliner while yelling "UP! DOWN! UP! DOWN!"

The other new word is "juice." She likes saying it more than she likes drinking it.

Another cool new vocabulary twist is that she understands way more than she did just a couple of weeks ago. Now when we read "Five Little Monkeys" she holds her head every time we get to the part where one of the monkeys bumps its head. This is just one example of the kinds of things she understands. It constantly blows my mind that I can mention something like "why don't we go outside after lunch?" and before I finish talking she's already at the door trying to get out. We're spelling things a lot more now. She doesn't get "not now--in a minute."

She's weird, which results in creativity. :-)

October catches up with Mama

I meant to update this last night, but feel asleep while getting Gaz to bed. I must have really needed it!

We have just returned from her 15mo. appointment and her current stats are: 34 inches in height, 30 pounds six ounes in heaviness, and 47 somethingorothers in head circumfrence. She's still off the chart. She's big enough now that she doesn't have to get up on her tip-toes to see what's on the dining room table, and her reach has grown as well. Best part of the visit is that Dr. C. says that she's progressing so ideally in terms of her vocabulary and coordination that she doesn't need to see her at 18 months. We're going back in a month for the second dose of flu vaccine so we're just going to do her 18 month vaccinations then and we won't have to worry about an actual doctor visit until August. Hooray!

Let's see. . . I keep thinking of things I should be putting down here but now of course they slip my mind. Halloween was a big success. We ended up going over to our friend Lis's house to help her hand out candy and to show off the finished Mothra costume. She's a very popular wee kaiju.

She fell out of bed for the first time last week, which was quite memorable for Mark and I. I scrambled to pick her up off the floor even before I was conscious enough to articulate what was going on--I was awoken from a sound sleep by a loud thump, my daughter was not right next to me, and my body moved instantly toward the end of the bed to pick her up before I knew what I was doing. Mark came rushing in asking how she fell off the bed and I said "I don't know. I was asleep!" She's definitely getting more fidgety in her sleep, but I think this is largely due to her crazy sleep schedule the past few weeks. She's evening out now.

She has her first owie from walking around outside, too. Yesterday we went out in search of discounted candy, and at first Gaz refused to ride in the stroller. She took a little tumble almost a block from home, but was completely unfazed. While we were at Walgreens I noticed a red spot on her hand and sure enough, there was a little scrape there. And even though mean Mama was the one who took soap and water to open wound, she still wanted to cuddle with me after the ordeal was finally over and I was reasonably sure we'd gotten the ick out of her abrasion.

I know there's more new tricks, but I can't think of any right now. Gaz is sleeping off her frustration and shots. I should probably get some straightening up done before Hurricane Gaz arises.

Hope your Halloween was groovy and Happy Day of the Dead to you all!